After riding the political wavethroughout the last year — largely rising and cresting on jokes made at the expense of candidate-turned-President Donald Trump — Saturday Night Live is more popular than it has been in 23 years.
But despite the high ratings, one cast member revealed to the Hollywood Reporter that garnering the amount of attention SNL has can feel “exploitative” given current events.
.@THR has a no “in character” policy for cover shoots. Very happy to make an exception for this one. https://t.co/vypyedAUsr pic.twitter.com/H7GNJDJOJm
— Matthew Belloni (@THRMattBelloni) May 15, 2017
“…Politics right now is probably the closest we’ve come to a full-blown national phenomenon as anything in a long time, and anytime people are paying more attention to politics, it’s good for our show,” cast member Colin Jost told the industry trade. “But you almost feel like a war profiteer at times because we’ve benefited from a situation that’s so tough.’”
Bigly @nbcsnl photo shoot with @AlecBaldwin, @MelissaMcCarthy, @BecBenit, Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong. pic.twitter.com/kh2doXtjFg
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) May 15, 2017
The revelation was part of the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine, in which twenty stars and creators let THR journalists behind the curtain of a wild and historic year.
A Trump cabinet member approached Alec Baldwin in NYC and told him: “That’s exactly what he’s like” https://t.co/7OubYkUiGt #SNL pic.twitter.com/IHQMBKeDv6
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) May 15, 2017
In addition to discussing the 2016 election, the piece reveals how Melissa McCarthy became Sean Spicer, divulges which joke Aziz Ansari had to cut from his post-Inauguration monologue, and explores how America’s current political climate will continue to pump the sketch show full of ratings, eyeballs, and potentially even late-night tweets from the president himself.
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